Chapter 129 The mantis stalks the cicada
Three days later, in Shouzhou, Miao Peilin, the local warlord known as “Little Zhou Yu”, received a handwritten letter from Wo Wang Zhang Lexing.

After reading the letter, Miao Peilin laughed up to the sky, “Someone has sent us silver. If we don’t take it, we will be blamed. Come on, gather the ten camps and go to Mengcheng to get the silver!”

An army of 50,000 crossed the Huai River and headed north, rushing towards Mengcheng.

The subordinates were all worried, “Boss, Zhang Lexing has the money and he won’t keep it to himself. Would he be so kind as to inform us?”

Miao Peilin pointed his whip to the north and said, “The Yi army is good at fighting, but Zhang Lexing can’t handle it by himself.”

“Boss, we are now the imperial army. Is it appropriate for us to join forces with the Nian army to rob the imperial army?”

“Why is it inappropriate? Qiao Songnian has money but he doesn’t give me the ‘King of Hebei Shuntian’ with 100,000 soldiers, but gives me the Yi Army with 6,000 soldiers. This shows that he doesn’t think highly of us. What’s wrong with us taking the money ourselves if we don’t have enough money?”

Miao Peilin also started out as a militia leader. If Shao Quanzhong did not rely on the Wen family to go public, but instead did it on his own, or even recruited others to rebel, it would basically be like this.

He took advantage of the fact that the Qing government was in a state of panic, with the Taiping Army in the south and the Nian Army in the north, and raised an army, coerced the people, committed all kinds of atrocities, and quickly expanded to 100,000 people, with a huge momentum. Both the Taiping Army and the Qing government tried to win him over, which made him even more proud.

He was a real warlord with no bottom line, who would follow whoever gave him milk. He held the titles of Daotai and Yanyunshi in the Qing court, and was named “Zouwang” by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He had been in and out of power for several times.

Chen Yucheng commented on him, “He is such a scoundrel, a straw on the wall, he will be swayed by the wind. If a dragon wins, he will help the dragon; if a tiger wins, he will help the tiger. In the future, he will not even be called a thief!”

At present, he is fighting under the banner of the Qing army, but for the sake of 200,000 silver coins, he has no psychological barriers to joining forces with the Nian army to rob the Yi army.

He was short of money. He didn’t have a godfather like Qiao Songnian who held the purse strings, nor did he have the ability to get money from foreigners, nor did he have the ability to govern the local area. He could only rob. He had already robbed the areas around Shouzhou and Mengcheng until there was nothing left.

The way he makes money now is to form a huge prostitution camp with the women he has snatched to make money for him…

As for why he had an army of 100,000, why did he only take 50,000 with him when he robbed the silver? His 100,000-strong army was even weaker than the Nian Army. The truly elite old camp had only a few thousand people, and the rest were all forced to join.

These 50,000-strong army were considered to be the long-standing bandits who had been robbing with him for many years.

…………

At Mengcheng Wharf, Song Qing led 5,000 Yi troops and successfully received 200 quick-firing rifles and 200,000 taels of silver.

Le Sen said goodbye to Song Qing calmly, “With the military pay, General Song, go back to expand the army and reorganize the troops. When the troops are well trained and the food is sufficient, we will attack the Nian bandits together and wipe out Zhang Lexing’s lair in one fell swoop.”

After saying that, he followed Song Le’s “Shu” camp, which had escorted guns, ammunition and silver here along the Wohe River, and returned to Fengyang.

Song Laosan’s fleet sailed eastward and out of the sight of the Yi Army. The ships stopped immediately and the entire army went ashore.

On the shore, 13,000 Huai Army troops were there, fully armed and ready to fight at any time.

Scouts from the direct troops and spies from the Intelligence Department’s rapid-fire team arrived on horseback in an endless stream, reporting intelligence from all sides to Zhang Zhidong.

…………

Song Qing was in high spirits. He didn’t expect that Shao Quanzhong was so particular. He really gave the money as he said. He was so rich. I, Song, will be rich from now on!

When he came to Mengcheng, he did not go directly along the Wo River like Le Sen did. Instead, he left the fleet and landed at Yimenbao, then headed south and east, bypassing Woyang where the Nian Army was entrenched, before arriving at Mengcheng. It took him three full days to march.

As long as the silver is transported back, the army can be expanded and trained, and a personal battalion of 200 quick-gun soldiers can be set up. With his own ability, he can defeat the Nian Army, get promoted and make money, and become a real general. The Yi Army will be on par with the Xiang Army, Huai Army, and Shanghai Army.

The five thousand men under my command are all good soldiers that I have trained myself. Even if the Nian Army finds out and comes to rob us, we can run away if we can’t defeat them. We won’t lose the silver. However, there are only a thousand old and weak people left in Bozhou to defend the city. It’s not a good idea to keep the empty city for too long, so we should quickly withdraw our troops.

The team slowly moved westward, and scouts were constantly sent to the north to prevent the Nian bandits from discovering and coming to rob the money.

The news we received was that although the five flags of the Nian Army had gathered together and were preparing for war, they did not come to the south. They probably did not discover our escort team.

“General, something bad has happened. Look to the south!”

There was a lot of dust in the south. As an experienced warrior, Song Qing knew from the dust that there must be tens of thousands of troops on the march. Soon a big flag was raised, “Miao”.

Well, Miao Peilin is coming here. This is the Qing army, and they should be going to suppress the Nian bandits. No wonder the five banners and 30,000 Nian bandits are ready to go. It turns out that the two families are going to fight.

Don’t worry, don’t worry. Miao Peilin can’t defeat Zhang Lexing even though he has many soldiers. The two of them are fighting and weakening each other. After I expand my army, it will be easier to join forces with the Huai Army to attack the Nian bandits. Sooner or later, the credit will be mine. I can’t escape it.

Why is Miao Peilin not heading north to cause trouble for the Nian bandits? Why are 50,000 troops chasing me westward?
Song Qing thought to himself that this was not good. Miao Peilin was an erratic person, so he might have joined the Taiping Army again.

Normally I am not afraid of you. I can run away even if I can’t afford to provoke you. You can’t catch up with me, and you can’t capture the fortified city of Bozhou. But today, this baggage and silver…

“Prepare for battle! Miao Peilin wants to rob our money, but he should think about whether he is strong enough!”

Two hundred thousand silver coins are related to the future of the Yi Army and cannot be given up no matter what.

Miao Peilin immediately put down the telescope, “Sure enough, look at those twenty or so large carts, moving slowly, they must be arms and silver, Zhang Lexing’s information is accurate. Come on -“

“Boss, aren’t we going to wait for the Nian Army to come and attack them together?”

“When the Nian army comes, shouldn’t we give them half of their territory? We can just swallow them up ourselves. Go ahead!”

Song Qing was furious. He really came to rob me. He drew his sword and said, “Brothers, kill!”

On the Huaibei Plain, 50,000 Miao bandits from the Great Camp surrounded 5,000 Yi troops. There were constant shouts of killing and the sound of matchlock guns, and blood and flesh were flying everywhere.

Logically, Miao Peilin’s battle was in line with the military strategy of “surrounding the enemy with ten enemies”. However, Song Qing was a fierce general of the time, and the 5,000 militiamen he trained were all elite. They were surrounded by 50,000 rabble, but they were not afraid. The two sides fought hard and it was difficult to tell who would win.

Miao Peilin shouted, “Pass the order, once the silver is grabbed, everyone will be rewarded equally!”

The morale of the Miao bandits was suddenly boosted.

How could these 50,000 men get their pay? They were lucky to have food to eat, and they had to rob for money. Only Miao Peilin’s 5,000-man battalion received pay, and it was often in arrears.

Miao Peilin watched Song Qing lead his men to charge left and right, and saw that the encirclement was about to be broken. He gritted his teeth and said, “Go to the old camp! Fight them!”

As soon as the old camp beside Miao Peilin arrived, the situation immediately changed.

The old camp of the Miao bandits not only had a well-organized army, but also had a thousand musket troops. As the muskets fired in unison, the battle-hardened Yi army fell in rows.

Seeing that the number of soldiers around him was decreasing, Song Qing sighed and said, “Miao Peilin, just wait. I will avenge you!”

He glanced at the arms and silver carts with great reluctance, turned around, and led his troops to break out.

Without the baggage to hold them back, Miao Peilin’s motley crowd could not stop the fierce charge of Song Qing, the real Baturu, and they watched as Song Qing led the Yi Army’s central army to break out.

Miao Peilin didn’t care, he laughed up to the sky, “I got the money!”

He walked up to the cart himself, used his sword to lift the cover on the cart, and sure enough, there was a lot of silver.

Song Qing led his men to break out of the encirclement, but when he looked back, he saw that there were only 1,500 elite old brothers left around him, and he felt like crying but had no tears.

“Let’s go back to Bozhou and recuperate. We will avenge this one day!”

Can’t go.

The flags in front were of five colors, and the main force of the 30,000 Nian Army was divided into five teams to form a semicircle, with a large flag “Zhang” in the middle.

(End of this chapter)